InDaily revealed on Wednesday that Walker Corporation had handed a formal proposal to the state government to build a second tower at Festival Plaza as part of the precinct’s $1 billion redevelopment.

The second tower would replace a planned three-storey retail building, which was due to start construction this year next to the 29-storey “One Festival Tower” office building.

Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning that the retail building would block the width of Parliament House, obscuring the state heritage-listed building’s “spectacular vista”.

Walker Corp’s approved plans for a three-storey retail complex and office tower at the Festival Plaza. The state government says it doesn’t make best use of the site so a second plan has been lodged. Image: Johnson Pilton Walker

He said Walker Corporation had instead proposed building a taller building with a “substantially reduced footprint”, meaning more of Parliament House’s façade could be viewed from Festival Plaza.

“The contemplation before the government and indeed Mr Walker is that rather than building something so big in terms of footprint, the footprint is substantially reduced in exchange for height,” the Premier said.

“I’m not too concerned about Mr Walker’s interests, I’m interested in the right outcome for civic space but also maintaining the heritage value of Parliament, which is clearly very significant.”

InDaily asked the government on Wednesday and again this morning how high Walker Corporation had proposed to build a second tower next to the existing 29-storey structure.

A government spokesperson said details of the proposal were commercial in confidence.

Walker Corporation has not responded to InDaily’s request for comment.

The Malinauskas Government said it had no power to veto the retail building as its construction was set in stone under a contract signed by the former Marshall Government and Walker Corporation in 2021.

But a clause in the contract allows Walker Corporation to request to gain access to air space above the retail building to build a second tower. The former Labor government gave Walker Corp exclusive rights to redevelop Festival Plaza in 2012.

Renewal SA will undertake a “formal evaluation process” of the proposal before making a recommendation to the state government.

“Very quickly after forming government we were presented with an inevitability and that is that Walker Corporation are legally not just contracted but legally obligated to build a three-storey building that will block out Parliament House from the perspective of Festival Plaza,” Malinauskas said this morning.

“He (Walker Corporation founder Lang Walker) does want to build it (the three-storey retail building), but the alternative, which is undoubtedly Mr Walker’s preference, is that rather than building a three-storey building that is the full-width of Parliament is to build a tower.”

Asked what civic value a taller building would add to Festival Plaza, Malinauskas said: “This is all up for negotiation and great discussion between both the government, the community and Walker Corporation”.

“The government’s message to Mr Walker is crystal clear: unless something is presented to us that provides a demonstrably better outcome than the current proposition, we’ll go with the current proposition,” he said.

“Politically, when it’s an eyesore and it achieves none of the civic space objectives, we’ll be able to point to the former government and say: ‘This is what they had locked in, so be it’.

“I’d like to improve upon that and we would be crazy not to contemplate that option, but it would have to be a substantial improvement and in many respects that will be in the eye of the beholder, but if there is an opportunity to improve an outcome, we’ll pursue it.”

A Renewal SA spokesperson previously told InDaily that any additional construction works at Festival Plaza might impact access to some areas of the precinct and delay the competition of the overall redevelopment, which also includes a car park and redesigned public space and was initially slated to be complete by 2025.

They said changing the current design would require planning approval.